Floral Skirt Finished

It took several days to free machine embroider all the flowers. The edges have been left raw so that when I wash it the edges will fray slightly to give it a softer look. I stitched round the edges of each flower twice so the fraying won't go beyond that. I'm pleased with the result - not too "folksy" at all (grin). I'm thinking of making a similar skirt but in a riot of colours next time. I embroidered the t-shirt a while ago with beige lazy daisies so it goes quite well with the skirt.

Floral skirt

I spent a few days cutting out flowers and circles from muslin and gauze to stick all over this plain 3/4 circle skirt. The skirt is very lightweight cotton so drapes beautifully but of course is also a little bit transparent with the light behind it. That's why I'm putting flowers all over it :-)
My young friend Andrea helped me cut some of them out when we stayed at their place over the weekend. It took another few evenings to iron them all on. I plan to machine embroider over all the flowers with another shade of browny-beige. I'm hoping at the end it will look sophisticated beige rather than boring beige :-) I just hope it doesn't look too "folksy".

Recycling, Restyling, Reinventing

On Thursday evening I went to an inspiring talk entitled "Re-invent your wardrobe" by Jody Pearl at the Salvo's Store (op shop, thrift store) in Willetton. As the title suggests, Jody recreates, redesigns and reinvents existing garments into unique wearables. Clothes that are too small can be taken apart and added to. Two tops could be combined to make one. A skirt could become a top. Mens ties may be made into a dress. At the end of the talk we had the opportunity to browse the store and buy clothing with a view to making our own unique wearables. I found a denim skirt which looked to be about my size and bought it with the idea that I would add some strips from some old jeans I have hoarded ("filed" according to Jody) for years to make it longer. But when I got it home and tried it on I liked it just as it is so I'll wear it like that for a while - I can always add the strips to it later when I get bored with it.

After that success at one op shop I went to a couple of others the following day. I loved the fabric of this dress that is way too big for me. I bought it with the idea that there is enough fabric there to make a skirt for myself. I also found a pair of jeans that were a perfect fit and look like they've never been worn. I bought another pair of jeans which were a baggy style with lots of pockets - these might become a skirt at some later date.

I made the burgundy skirt last week. I quite like the fit, but I'll probably make the next one a few inches shorter. I'm making patterns for simple skirts with the idea that I'll make lots of skirts from the same pattern. Hopefully they will all look very different due to the fabric and embellishments I use. I've got lots of ideas for making unique fabric - which obviously takes quite a long time. So I want to perfect the pattern first in order that I can be absolutely certain of the fit, and I only have to make the minimum amount of fabric necessary.

Crochet embellishment 3

I crocheted a few pink flowers last night so that I could see the effect of them grouped together on the t-shirt. I've made all different ones - just making them up as I went along. I like the look of these against the uniform and regular half treble crochet I used to make the basic t-shirt. I much prefer this self-coloured textural look to the embroidery experiments I did previously. So, lots more crochet flowers coming up.

Most of today has been spent making up orders and replenishing stock. I'm off to a retreat this weekend and taking my goodies to sell there. I'm taking my Seven Sisters quilt so that I can continue quilting it, Karen's Konstellation in case I finish the Seven Sisters as I don't think I 've got that much more of the centre panel to go, and the pink thread so I can crochet some more flowers. These make a nice break from hand quilting so I don't get too achy from doing one thing all the time. Knowing me I'll probably pack quite a few other things to do too even though I should have learned by now that I always take too much.

I took on newsletter duties for the WA Fibre & Textiles Association recently so I am currently compiling my first issue. As is usually the case with these things this first issue seems to be taking me forever. I looked at my schedule yesterday and frightened myself with all that I have to do over the next month. I am determined to keep blogging - although I will miss a few days while on retreat.

crochet embellishment 2

These are the two yarns I had in mind for embellishing the pink t-shirt. The multicoloured one is very slubby and proved too difficult to weave through the crochet. Weaving also damaged the yarn. I didn't like the effect of the purple and pink variegated yarn once woven although it was easy to weave as it is smooth. In the photos you can see the bright yellow tacking too. This is for placement purposes and will be removed after embellishing the top. So, back to square one as far as embellishing is concerned.

I have now decided to try adding texture rather than colour, and to create a more informal panel as I didn't like the regularity of the weaving either. I like the idea of lots of flowers using the same thread that I used to make the top stitched randomly over the panel and extending over the shouler area. The beige flowers are experiments - I like the size of them so will now go ahead and make lots from the pink thread.